On Debian 12, with the command dmesg | grep firmware, I can see this message:
[ 6.154197] r8169 0000:2f:00.0: firmware: failed to load rtl_nic/rtl8168h-2.fw (-2)
[ 6.154204] r8169 0000:2f:00.0: firmware: failed to load rtl_nic/rtl8168h-2.fw (-2)
[ 6.154205] r8169 0000:2f:00.0: Direct firmware load for rtl_nic/rtl8168h-2.fw failed with error -2
[ 6.154207] r8169 0000:2f:00.0: Unable to load firmware rtl_nic/rtl8168h-2.fw (-2)
However my Ethernet card is working without needing an additional non-free firmware package.
With the command apt-file search rtl8168h-2.fw, I can see the package firmware-realtek contains the firmware.
What is the advantage of installing the firmware-realtek package containing the firmware? Is there a technical changelog to see what changes with the version 0.0.2?
All I can see on the package changelog https://metadata.ftp-master.debian.org/changelogs//non-free-firmware/f/firmware-nonfree/firmware-nonfree_20230210-5_changelog is realtek: Update RTL8107E-1, RTL8107E-2, RTL8168H-1 and RTL8168H-2 firmware to version 0.0.2.
Is it possible to know the firmware version preloaded in the Ethernet card if there is any used?
I also noticed many other possible missing firmware are displayed with update-initramfs -u:
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8125b-2.fw for module r8169
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8125a-3.fw for module r8169
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8107e-2.fw for module r8169
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8168fp-3.fw for module r8169
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8168h-2.fw for module r8169
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8168g-3.fw for module r8169
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8168g-2.fw for module r8169
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8106e-2.fw for module r8169
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8106e-1.fw for module r8169
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8411-2.fw for module r8169
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8411-1.fw for module r8169
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8402-1.fw for module r8169
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8168f-2.fw for module r8169
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8168f-1.fw for module r8169
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8105e-1.fw for module r8169
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8168e-3.fw for module r8169
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8168e-2.fw for module r8169
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8168e-1.fw for module r8169
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8168d-2.fw for module r8169
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8168d-1.fw for module r8169
The "Possible missing firmware" warnings can be ignored according to Linux Upgrade (Debian) - Possible missing firmware problem but in my case there is also another message displayed with dmesg that I mentioned previously.
